The Mask of a Ninja
by Atlantian12
Summary: What if the face of Naruto wasn't his true identity, what if another classmate, with similar circumstances uncovers that? Let's see how the Ninja world copes with Naruto as a Genius! Naruhina.


**A/N: Okay, in this fic I'm going to try my first Smart/Genius!Naruto story, if you have any idea how to make him seem smarter, but still Naruto, please review or PM me, thanks, and enjoy.**

A Blond-haired boy stood on top of a giant stone head sticking out of a mountain, gazing down at the village below. This was Naruto Uzumaki, the proclaimed 'Demon' of the village, and the evident 'Dobe' (idiot) of his class at the Ninja Academy, but, contrary to popular belief, he was neither demonic, nor stupid, he was in fact, one of the most promising ninja in the generation, with an iron-strong set of morals. That's where the mask came in.

You see, Naruto for the first year of his academy career, showed off his incredible intelligence, and tried to befriend the entire class, but that all changed when the adults got involved, the teachers, when marking his tests, graded him zero and gave him detention, with the accusation of copying. Most of the parents of his classmates simply told them the whole story of lies that they somehow managed to believe themselves, and told them to stay away from Naruto, or they'd get hurt, so eventually Naruto created a mask, not literally, but he simply acted as if nothing was wrong, he even tried to believe it himself, just to get away from the hurt of his memories, then, everyone began to forget about the genius that had attempted to befriend them, and saw him as he wanted, a total loser. He began to live his mask, even at home, or when he was alone, and eventually, it became natural for him.

But then, it all came apart one day, when something extraordinary happened, He made a friend.

FLASHBACK NO JUTSU!

**One of Konohagakure's Playgrounds Naruto's age: 8**

Naruto was on the swing, just sitting there, with the goofy grin on his face that never left, seeming like the happiest boy in world, an appearance only achieved after years of practice, when a girl around his age came up to him, he glanced at her, spotting immediately that she was of the Great Ninja clan, The Hyuuga, by the tell-tale blank-looking eyes and dark coloured hair, he also recognized her from his class, she was Hinata Hyuuga, the clan heiress.. He expected her to go right on by, until she spoke.

"Hello? You're Naruto right?" Her voice was soft, and Kind, he was surprised, but didn't let it show

"Yep! That's me!" he half-yelled, grinning at the girl

"You know, you don't have to use the mask all the time" she told him. THAT one surprised him, and seeing as it was currently usless, he let the mask drop for the first time in years, his grin disappearing, and his eyes becoming more serious.

"How did you see through it? It's not as if anyone else at the academy has seen through it Hinata-san" he asked, truly curious, and was shocked at the answer he received.

"You're not the only one wearing a mask" she stated, and then Naruto realized it, she was so obviously different, in class, she was always shy, and stuttering, but her she had just marched up to him and spoken without hesitation, he was intrigued.

"Well, you're obviously better at it then me, but I'm curious, why do you have a mask?"

"I felt it would be best, as It means I am constantly overlooked in the family, as I don't seem much of a threat, and it leaves me open to surprise them when the time comes, and achieve my dream" she said

"Oh? And what is that dream?"

"To become Clan Head and rid the world of that stupid Caged Bird seal"

"Good goal, Mine is to first become Hokage, then try to establish a treaty between all of the elemental nations"

"A bit grand, but definitely Noble" she said after considering his dream

"You're quite cool when you're not stuttering and fainting"

"Thanks, and anyway, you can drop your second mask now"

"What!? How can you see through this one!?" He yelled, amazed she knew about the deeper mask he wore

"I didn't, I just remembered the Prodigy you were in our first year, and noticed you aren't nearly as clever as your were then right now, so you must be hiding that too, correct?"

"wow" was all he could say, he knew the Hyuuga were good at reading people, but this girl just picked apart two emotional masks that had been foolproof for years!

He looked directly at her now, and a little spark of power and Knowledge crept into his eyes

"That's better, now we are both our true selves, why don't we hang out a bit?" she asked, pleased she had gotten through to the true Naruto

"Really? Are you sure? Haven't your parents warned you to stay away from me like everyone else's?" He wondered

"No. In actual fact, My Father encouraged it!" she said, then giggled a little at the confused look this brought to the boys face

"well…" He started "That's a first"

"Yes, but that's only because some people can't see past things in people, even things that happen at their birth, for instance, I was born into the Hyuuga clan, so I automatically got the status of Hyuuga-sama to many people" She explained

"I suppose so, anyway, if we're going to be friends, I wanna take you to my favourite restaurant in the village, Icharaku's Ramen" he announced, happily

"Okay then, let's get to know each other over a few bowls" she replied, then pulled him up off the swing, and away.

FLASHBACK NO JUTSU: KAI (release)

And now they were both Genin, he had pretended to fail at bunshin during the exam, simply because the Hokage, one of only 5 people in the entire village who knew about the mask, had suspected a traitor among the teachers, and knew Naruto's failure would begin the process of the treachery. And, true to this, Mizuki approached him and told him a clearly made-up idea that there was a second exam, to steal the forbidden scroll, but there were two reasons why it would be impossible for Naruto to steal the scroll, as #1, it was guarded by dozens of Jounin, and #2, it was technically HIS in the first place, yes, the Forbidden scroll of Konoha belonged to Naruto, Kami he loved getting inheritance from his father, as the scroll had been originally written and owned by Minato Namikaze, it passed down to his son according to the simple laws stated in his will.

Anyway, Naruto immediately notified the Hokage, and, in the forest meeting place, instead of finding a single academy student with a giant scroll, he was surrounded with ANBU and taken away to the T&I Department, then Naruto received his Headband from Iruka, one of the 5 mentioned earlier. Later that night, if you were awake at the time, the villagers would have seen a large amount of smoke rising from the Hokage monument, and Ninja might just have seen a 13 year old boy in his pyjamas dancing round a burning pile of orange jumpsuits, laughing maniacally. and now he was waiting on his Father's stone head for the right time to act.

Suddenly, a beeping noise erupted from his pocket, he quickly thrust his hand into it, pressed a button on the alarm there, and stepped to the edge of the monument, placing a hand to the backpack he had secured over his shoulders, then leapt off, pulling the cord next to his ear and suddenly he was flying, green wings had extended on either side of the pack, decorated with the Konohagakure leaf symbol, and were supporting the young blonde as he soared over the village.

**Konohagakure Ninja Academy, same time**

A group of young Genin were just heading towards the gate of their school for team placements, when they saw it, a giant green thing flying towards them, at high speed. Many of the boys, and all but one of the girls screamed in terror and ran inside, leaving only Sasuke Uchiha, too arrogant for his own good, Kiba Inuzuka, pretty much the same exept he's cocky, and Hinata Hyuuga, who simply knew exactly what was going on. The green thing flapped around a bit more, then dove, landing neatly in the Academy courtyard and folding up to reveal, to the student's surprise, one grinning, decidedly NOT orange Uzumaki.

"Yo!" he shouted "Naruto Uzumaki in da House!"

All the students fell silent at this exclamation, looking at his face for the first time since he landed, and realized he WAS Naruto Uzumaki… he wasn't wearing orange… was the world ending?

Naruto and Hinata watched as the entire class fainted before them, and then burst out laughing.

**A/N: Okay, this was my first chapter of the new Story, please, any hints or tips on how to improve my writing are appreciated, and please no Flames, if you don't like the story, don't read.**


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